Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-11-09
SORGHUM SUGAR.

SORGHUM SUGAR.
y brief description of the new pro-
cess Tor making sugar from sorghum
cane, is given below. 1t is published
now that our people may be enabled to
collect all information possible on this
subject, for Medicine Lodge Will more
than likely have factory next year.
Every citizen interested in the welfare
of the county should collect informa-
ton on the subject, and the columns of
the INDEX will at all times be open for
suggestions from our citizens.
The diffusion process consists of the
extraction of the juice of the cane by
intermingling with water. \ series of
cells, very much in shape like the mag
azine of soda fountain, only six or
seven times as large, standing on end
and each holding about a ton of chop
ped cane. They are air and water
tight with movable bottom, through
which to drop the chips after the juice
is expressed The cane is first run
through a powerful cutting machine
which chips it up i'll pieces about an
inch III length, leaves and all. 1t is
then run through a powerful windmill,
which blows out all the leaves and re-
fuse, leaving the chips of cane clean.
These are then elevated to the second
story, where they are run through an
other machine and split into very fine
PARTICLES. From this machine the mass
is carried by roller trough along the
diffusion battery. The battery con-
sists of fourteen cells, above described,
consecutively competed with water,
steam and compressed air pipes, and as
fast as the juice is expressed, diffused
from the cane, they are emptied and
filed. The diffusion is accomplished
in this way, the fourteen cells, arranged
thus:
100000 O-O-O-O-O-O-O
2 8 9 10 III Il 10 IL
are numbered as shown in the diagram.
They are filed with cane and cold wa
ter is forced into No. ]. There the hot
steam in the connecting pipe heats the
water somewhat and it is diffused
through the cane. This mixing with
the Juice. makes the liquid makes the
liquid one half water and the other half
cane juice. Or, in other words, the liq-
uId now consists fifty per cent of juice.
II is now forced from y o. l. into No. 2.
and No. /. is again filled with pure wa
ter. The liquid going into No. :. is
diifqsed through the cane, taking up
another per cent. of juice from that
cell, while the pure water in No. ].
takes up one half of the juice left in
No. /. and then follows into No. 2. as
No. 2. is emptied or drawn off into No.
3. until the liquid in this way reaches
No. Z. where il is charged with as much
juice as it will hold. II IL Thea drawn
off into watts and is ready to go into the
vacuum boiling pans. The other wa
ter and juice follows along until finally
the flesh water forced into No. !. comes
out pure showing that all the juice has
been extracted. 1t Is then emptied of
the refuse and again filled, to undergo
the same process, From No. s. out to
No. IA. the cells are used Ia the same
way, and when i'm full operation a con-
tinuOus stream of juice is pouring into
the watts. This is diffusion.
The vacuum boiling pans, two in
number, in this factory, which has a
capacity of twelve hundred acres of
cane per season are built of boiler iron
and look very much like about one
fourth cross section of a freight car.
and about rs high. Being air tight the
juice boils at a very low temperature
and the exhaust steam from the huge
engine that runs the machinery is found
ample to do all the boiling. After the
juice is boiled down the mass is placed
/ in sheet-irOn cars sent down TO the CEN
trifugals, where the rapid revolving
motion throws out all the syrup and
moisture, leaving the dry granules of
sugar.
The success of the works is greatly
due TO the simplicity and perfection of
the machine with which the cane il
handled. Everything is done auto
matically, the cane Ia tom is ubIOaded
from the wagon by machinery, carried
to the machinery on an endless belt.
and finally the refuse from the cells is
dumped through the bottom into a car
which is attached to an endless cabls,
taken out three hundred yards aud
dumped. AL this is done by one man
who stands by the levers which control
all these gearings